Porsche LeMans Racer Is Attempting To Use The Energy We Lose From Gas

Gasoline engines have gotten incredibly good at squeezing all the energy they can out of gas. The problem is that "incredibly good" still means about 37% efficiency, but 37% still kind of sucks. The rest of that energy is lost as heat, but there are ways to reclaim it. Ask Porsche.

Porsche's 919 Hybrid racer is using a pretty novel drivetrain: a 500HP 2L V4 engine (a first, if you don't count their flat-fours as a 180°V) and an electric KERS system with an electric motor active on the front wheels. But what makes it interesting is how that KERS system is charged up, at least in part: with energy generated via recovery of heat from the exhaust flow.